myArmoury.com - Looking for a Book on 2hand sword techniques and instruction

Posts: 62 Location: Germany

Sun 17 May, 2009 10:30 am

Looking for a Book on 2hand sword techniques and instruction

Hi all !

I am looking for a book covering two handed swords. Preferably a more modernised version, while i am intersted in the history of the weapons, for practice and daily use of a book I have to admitt i find a commented and illustrated book alot more gratifying.

i was hoping for a work similar to the work of Christian Henry Tobler (i have the german version so i guess the english title is roughly : Mordern Trianing with the longsword) or the book from David Lindholm and Peter Svaerd Knightly Art of the Longsword.

I am hoping for input here on that matter. Of course historical sources are greatly appreciated too if they are somewhere available online or in reprinted form.

Thanks alot in advance.

Best regards

Klaus

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Roger Hooper

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Posts: 4,393 Location: Northern California

Sun 17 May, 2009 4:24 pm

Many people favor Guy Windsor's, The Swordman's Companion: A Manual for Training With the Medieval Longsword

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Hendrik De Coster

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Posts: 115 Location: Belgium

Tue 19 May, 2009 12:03 am

there's also the cheaper solution, and join the fechtshulle yahoo group
there are some modern books on there but you have to be a member.
it has lots of videos too

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Klaus Gimm

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Posts: 62 Location: Germany

Tue 19 May, 2009 2:50 am

Hi Folks

thanks alot for the input so far.

The book does look interesting. However due to the price i have to double check. does it just cover the one and a half sword. or the full size two handed sword as well ?

The Yahoo group is a great idea. What group do you mean exactly ? I am searching through yahoo and dont seem to find what you are refering to.

Best regards

Klaus

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Hendrik De Coster

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Posts: 115 Location: Belgium

Tue 19 May, 2009 8:02 am

sorry i meant slachtshulle

here's a link
http://sports.groups.yahoo.com/group/dieschlachtschule/
the owner, hugh, is a really nice guy and he helps you as good as he can=)

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Vincent Le Chevalier

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Posts: 870 Location: Paris, France

Tue 19 May, 2009 9:20 am

Klaus Gimm wrote:

The book does look interesting. However due to the price i have to double check. does it just cover the one and a half sword. or the full size two handed sword as well ?

I could be wrong as I don't have the book, but it seems to focus exclusively on longsword, which would be more of the hand and a half variety (see sample pages here).

There aren't too many historical texts about fighting with a full two-handers available now, and the longsword is still the most popular weapon in WMA. I think big two-handers are used in the Bolognese school of fencing, but unfortunately I'm unaware of any books being published about that yet. Two-handers also appear in Portuguese texts, where it's called the montante. Steve Hick and Matt Galas taught a workshop about it at the Dijon HEMAC gathering this year, guiding us through solo drills with the weapon. Maybe you could contact them, perhaps the class handout could be useful to you.

I guess in the worst case you could start from longsword techniques and try to see which work and which don't with the longer weapon. But it takes a lot of experience to make a guesswork such as this...

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Douglas S

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Posts: 177

Tue 19 May, 2009 9:51 am

I have just gotten Brian Price's Sword in Two Hands.

I had hesitated on getting it previously because I had heard some bad reviews, but it's very good, well laid out. I have some quibbles about how big the pictures should be in illustrating Fiore's plays, but all in all, I give it full marks, well done! And well-suited toward training at home.

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M. Eversberg II

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Posts: 1,435 Location: California, Maryland, USA

Tue 19 May, 2009 1:24 pm

Klaus, I was just about to post up my copy of the Swordsman's Companion in the Marketplace. Were you interested in it?

M.

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Steve Hick

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Posts: 46 Location: United States

Thu 28 May, 2009 1:50 pm

Vincent Le Chevalier wrote:

Klaus Gimm wrote:

The book does look interesting. However due to the price i have to double check. does it just cover the one and a half sword. or the full size two handed sword as well ?

I could be wrong as I don't have the book, but it seems to focus exclusively on longsword, which would be more of the hand and a half variety (see sample pages here).

There aren't too many historical texts about fighting with a full two-handers available now, and the longsword is still the most popular weapon in WMA. I think big two-handers are used in the Bolognese school of fencing, but unfortunately I'm unaware of any books being published about that yet. Two-handers also appear in Portuguese texts, where it's called the montante. Steve Hick and Matt Galas taught a workshop about it at the Dijon HEMAC gathering this year, guiding us through solo drills with the weapon. Maybe you could contact them, perhaps the class handout could be useful to you.

I guess in the worst case you could start from longsword techniques and try to see which work and which don't with the longer weapon. But it takes a lot of experience to make a guesswork such as this...

Hi, Vincent told me of this thread.

Yes, we are finding much material from Iberia on the large two handed sword. This sword is not, not the one used by forward troops to break pike formation, but a specialized weapon used by highly trained persons who served as body guards and the guards to the commanders and pennants during battle. And it served as a badge of authority, e.g., the Count Duke de Oliveras has his portrait painted with one.

The large two handed sword really isn't a dueling weapon per se, although it can be, and we are provided some material on what to do if you encounter another. It essentially is used in difficult circumstances - we have many plays on how to fight many people in different surroundings, or dissimilar weapons, pikes, polearms, darts, sword and shield, and sword alone.

Initial seed material came from Portugal, from a general in the Portuguese war against Spain, who was also the master to the Prince of Portugal and Brazil. Hence the confusion, but we have material recorded now from Portugal, Spain and even by an Italian recording the plays.

Matt Galas and I did teach a course at Dijon this year to some 60 folks on this material, and the next day, Matt and I taught again some drills he had derived from the German corpus, using the approach of the Iberians. Nothing has been published yet, people who attended the class have been offered hand outs.

Steve

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